Online communities may experience online harassment from Internet ‘trolls.’ An Internet troll is a malicious user who intentionally provokes arguments and upsets users by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog. Internet trolls, in turn, typically generate widespread cases of harassment and abusive language that lead many people feeling uncomfortable to speak out online.
Internet trolls may work alone or in groups, and typically create several different accounts to post offensive messages in an effort to be “under the radar” of an administrator searching for user accounts that post an excessive amount offensive messages. In addition, Internet trolls may target specific individuals and post offensive messages pertaining to the specific individuals on several different discussion boards of which the specific individuals are members.